The actor’s brief stint as the Dark Knight may be cut short due to a lack of adequate coverage.
Ben Affleck may not be able to continue in his role as the Caped Crusader because of the Batman movie insurance costs it would take to cover him. A recent report indicated the premiums of covering him post-rehab would be prohibitive.
Affleck checked back into rehab earlier this week with the encouragement of his former wife.
Actress Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck’s ex-wife, encouraged him to check himself back into rehab. As a result, the Justice League star’s Batman movie insurance will be notably higher than it was in previous films, even within the same series. This, according to a report by TheWrap, which cited industry experts familiar with the matter.
The actor had “fallen off the wagon a while ago,” said a TMZ report, which also indicate that he had been getting “progressively worse.”
Affleck is a recovering alcoholic. This latest admittance to rehab represents the second time he has sought this type of help within the last year. It is his third time in rehab within the last twenty years.
This trend has made it more challenging for Warner Brothers to find affordable Batman movie insurance.
The Batman actor’s increasing and ongoing need for rehab could mean that Warner Brothers will drop him from the starring role, said TheWrap media report. This would mean he would no longer play the Dark Knight in future Batman or Justice League movies. The expensive insurance isn’t something that would go away in the near future.
“More than likely the studio will replace him because the insurance costs are going to go through the roof,” said an anonymous representative for a completion bond firm quoted by TheWrap. The actor “would be bondable, but the deductible would be really high, probably the budget of the film,” explained an attorney with a specialty in insurance and bond products. The bond firm source said that insurance companies could make coverage overwhelmingly costly.
In fact, the source stated that the insurers could require the studio to put half the film budget into escrow as an insurance coverage deductible. That doesn’t represent a small figure for the Batman movie insurance coverage. For instance, Justice league’s film budget was about $300 million and, before that, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice came with a price tag of $250 million.
